Mothering queerly, queering motherhood
Subtitle: resisting monomaternalism in adoptive, lesbian, blended, and polygamous families
By: Shelley M. Park
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: 2013
Place of publication: Albany
Language: eng
Number of pages: 306
ISBN-13: 9781438447179
Subjects: Motherhood; Families; Lesbian mothers; Interracial adoption; Adoptive parents; Queer theory
Description: "Bridging the gap between feminist studies of motherhood and queer theory, Mothering Queerly, Queering Motherhood articulates a provocative philosophy of queer kinship that need not be rooted in lesbian or gay sexual identities. Working from an interdisciplinary framework that incorporates feminist philosophy and queer, psychoanalytic, poststructuralist, and postcolonial theories, Shelley M. Park offers a powerful critique of an ideology she terms monomaternalism. Despite widespread cultural insistence that every child should have one--and only one--"real" mother, many contemporary family constellations do not fit this mandate. Park highlights the negative consequences of this ideology and demonstrates how families created through open adoption, same-sex parenting, divorce, and plural marriage can be sites of resistance. Drawing from personal experiences as both an adoptive and a biological mother and juxtaposing these autobiographical reflections with critical readings of cultural texts representing multi-mother families, Park advocates a new understanding of postmodern families as potentially queer coalitional assemblages held together by a mixture of affection and critical reflection premised on difference." -- Publisher's description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Querying a straight orientation: becoming a mother (twice, differently); title: The adoptive maternal body: queering reproduction; title: Queer orphans and their neo-liberal saviors: racialized intimacy in adoption; title: Making room for two mothers: queering children's literature; title: Queer assemblages: the domestic geography of postmodern families; title: Control freaks and queer adolescents: there's no place like home; title: Queering familial solidarity: polymaternalism and polygamy.